I've had to take some time before framing a response to this post. If I started in on the state of affairs in education in NC at present, I would not know where to begin or when to stop. Will say, however, I'm glad Mills receives call from McClatchy's Head of Subscription Care and receives appropriate help and can remain a subscriber and claim access to all McClatchy sites. This is probably due to Mills' persistence, personal advocacy, strong personal speaking and writing skills, and maybe even perhaps his own name recognition. I do not know this last part about name recognition. Still. He's known for tenacity. Anyway. Great news. Here's my aside. I'm reminded of an experience a few months back when I struggled through hoops, loops, hours on the phone, and complete frustration with my secondary insurance--Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC. They set in motion a new operating system and launched before getting out the kinks. Such a mess. I put up with it for most of a day and stopped. Rather than pursue further I placed a call to the NC Department of Insurance consumer services and filed a written complaint. I knew the problem I was having was probably not at all unique. I figured many others were affected, especially those connected with Seniors' Health Insurance Information Program (SHIIP). This made it more imperative to get to an agency AND a person to be certain my complaint would be heard. In less than 24 hours, I receive a call from a complaint analyst from NC Department of Insurance. And within hours after that, I receive a call from customer service from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC to address the problem. Often what gets attention is using writing effectively to register a complaint. And registering the complaint with a higher-up. Forget customer call centers for tech support when departments appear scrambled. Yet in education it appears quite clear that refined critical literate skills are a threat to our NC Republican legislature or the assault on teachers and bombed out budgets for education in NC would not have happened. As Mills points out, the ongoing, precise assault against public education in our state has been in the works for years. Increment by increment. So, of course why not legislate something burdensome and repulsive like ordering teachers to post their lesson plans? Drag the system down further. Make it ever more difficult for educators to promote critical literacy across disciplines and teach students to exercise command with spoken and written language. That is too radical. What's radical is a Republican legislature or a political mindset to not want citizens to have and use power that comes from sharp thinking skills. And writing well can ignite as can a powerful weapon. I suspect those at the N.&O. and McClatchy caught wind of who was dropping their subscription and did something about it quickly. Or put another way--political winds blowing today suggest many in power do not desire educated citizenry. But would rather have fools standing at key intersections dressed in patriotic costumes waving flags and banners and shouting trump ass nonsense.
I've had to take some time before framing a response to this post. If I started in on the state of affairs in education in NC at present, I would not know where to begin or when to stop. Will say, however, I'm glad Mills receives call from McClatchy's Head of Subscription Care and receives appropriate help and can remain a subscriber and claim access to all McClatchy sites. This is probably due to Mills' persistence, personal advocacy, strong personal speaking and writing skills, and maybe even perhaps his own name recognition. I do not know this last part about name recognition. Still. He's known for tenacity. Anyway. Great news. Here's my aside. I'm reminded of an experience a few months back when I struggled through hoops, loops, hours on the phone, and complete frustration with my secondary insurance--Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC. They set in motion a new operating system and launched before getting out the kinks. Such a mess. I put up with it for most of a day and stopped. Rather than pursue further I placed a call to the NC Department of Insurance consumer services and filed a written complaint. I knew the problem I was having was probably not at all unique. I figured many others were affected, especially those connected with Seniors' Health Insurance Information Program (SHIIP). This made it more imperative to get to an agency AND a person to be certain my complaint would be heard. In less than 24 hours, I receive a call from a complaint analyst from NC Department of Insurance. And within hours after that, I receive a call from customer service from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC to address the problem. Often what gets attention is using writing effectively to register a complaint. And registering the complaint with a higher-up. Forget customer call centers for tech support when departments appear scrambled. Yet in education it appears quite clear that refined critical literate skills are a threat to our NC Republican legislature or the assault on teachers and bombed out budgets for education in NC would not have happened. As Mills points out, the ongoing, precise assault against public education in our state has been in the works for years. Increment by increment. So, of course why not legislate something burdensome and repulsive like ordering teachers to post their lesson plans? Drag the system down further. Make it ever more difficult for educators to promote critical literacy across disciplines and teach students to exercise command with spoken and written language. That is too radical. What's radical is a Republican legislature or a political mindset to not want citizens to have and use power that comes from sharp thinking skills. And writing well can ignite as can a powerful weapon. I suspect those at the N.&O. and McClatchy caught wind of who was dropping their subscription and did something about it quickly. Or put another way--political winds blowing today suggest many in power do not desire educated citizenry. But would rather have fools standing at key intersections dressed in patriotic costumes waving flags and banners and shouting trump ass nonsense.